Dessena, GabrielePontillo, AlessandroCivera, MarcoIgnatyev, Dmitry I.Whidborne, James F.Zanotti Fragonara, Luca2025-06-062025-06-062025-06-01Dessena G, Pontillo A, Civera M, et al., (2025) Damping identification sensitivity in flutter speed estimation. Vibration, Volume 8, Issue 2, June 2025, Article number 242571-631Xhttps://doi.org/10.3390/vibration8020024https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/23992Data supporting this study (𝑝−𝑘 method MATLAB implementation) are openly available from the Zenodo Repository at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15176140. Furthermore, this study used existing authors’ data made available under licence at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11635814 and derived from the following resource available in the public domain: [11].Predicting flutter remains a key challenge in aeroelastic research, with certain models relying on modal parameters, such as natural frequencies and damping ratios. These models are particularly useful in early design stages or for the development of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (maximum take-off mass below 7 kg). This study evaluates two frequency-domain system identification methods, Fast Relaxed Vector Fitting (FRVF) and the Loewner Framework (LF), for predicting the flutter onset speed of a flexible wing model. Both methods are applied to extract modal parameters from Ground Vibration Testing data, which are subsequently used to develop a reduced-order model with two degrees of freedom. The results indicate that FRVF- and LF-informed models provide reliable flutter speed, with predictions deviating by no more than 3% (FRVF) and 5% (LF) from the N4SID-informed benchmark. The findings highlight the sensitivity of flutter speed predictions to damping ratio identification accuracy and demonstrate the potential of these methods as computationally efficient alternatives for preliminary aeroelastic assessments.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/40 Engineering4001 Aerospace Engineering4017 Mechanical engineering4901 Applied mathematicsLoewner FrameworkFast Relaxed Vector FittingModal AnalysisGround Vibration TestingAeroelasticityDampingFlutterReduced Order ModelAeronautical StructuresSystem IdentificationArticle2571-631X6733372482